Experimental and Simulation Study of Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing of CFRP/Ti Stacks

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) are advanced engineering materials which are recognized as the most sought-after composite for several industrial applications including aerospace and automotive sectors. CFRP have superior physical and mechanical properties such as lightweight, high resilience, high-durability and high strength-to-weight ratio. CFRP composites stacked up with titanium to form multi-layered material stacks to enhance its load bearing capability. Traditional methods of stacking up CFRP and titanium involves using either high strength adhesives or rivets and bolts. The laminate structures joined by these methods often tend to fail during high load-bearing applications. Conventional metal welding technologies use high heat causing high thermal stresses and microstructural damages. Ultrasonic welding is a solid-state joining process, which has the capability of welding dissimilar materials at relatively low temperatures using ultrasonic vibration. Ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) process is an ideal method to weld CFRP and Titanium. During the ultrasonic welding process, two dissimilar materials under a continuous static load are subjected to transverse ultrasonic vibrations, which results in high stress and friction between the two surfaces. This research focuses on the study of ultrasonically welding CFRP and Titanium stacks using UAM process. The study involves experimentation performed on an in-house built UAM setup. Finite element analysis is performed to understand the distribution stresses and strains during the UAM process. In this study, CFRP and Titanium layers are successfully welded using UAM process without causing any melting or significant heating. The finite element analysis study revealed that during UAM process, CFRP/Titanium stacks are subject to repeated cyclic shear stress reversals resulting in a strong weld joint. The stress-strain diagram during the process showed a considerable increase in plastic strain during the UAM process. The outcomes of this study can be used to further the industrial applications of the ultrasonic additive process as well as other ultrasonic welding based processes involving dissimilar materials.